30 april 2006 no. 8 anet newsletter2019. 12. 18. · (japan); mr. suputa (indonesia). 4. there was a...

30 APRIL 2006 No. 8

ANeT Newsletter International Network for the Study of Asian Ants / DIWPA Network

for Social Insect Collections / DIVERSITAS in West Pacific and Asia

Proceedings of Committee Meeting of 5th ANeT Workshop

Minutes prepared by:

Prof. Datin Dr. Maryati Mohamed

Institute for Tropical Biology & Conservation

Universiti Malaysia Sabah, MALAYSIA

Place and Date of the Committee Meeting

Committee meeting of 5th ANeT Workshop was held on 30th November 2005 at the National

Museum, Kuala Lumpur. The meeting started at 12.30 with a discussion on the draft of Action Plan

tabled by Dr. John Fellowes and meeting then chaired by Prof. Maryati Mohamed at 1.00 pm. Meeting

adjourned at 3.00 p.m.

Members Attending

Prof. Maryati Mohamed, the President of ANeT (Malaysia)

Prof. Seiki Yamane (Japan)

Prof. Kazuo Ogata (Japan)

Dr. Rudy Kohout (Australia)

Dr. John R. Fellowes (Hong Kong/UK)

Mr. Suputa (Indonesia)

Dr. Yoshiaki Hashimoto (Japan)

Dr. Decha Wiwatwitaya (Thailand)

Dr. Bui Tuan Viet (Vietnam)

Dr. Himender Bharti (India)

Dr. Sriyani Dias (Sri Lanka)

Mr. Bakhtiar Effendi Yahya, the Secretariat of ANeT (Japan)

Ms. Petherine Jimbau, the Secretariat of ANeT (Malaysia)

Agenda Agreed

1. Discussion on Proposal on Action Plan as tabled by Dr. John Fellowes

2. Proceedings/Journal

3. Next meeting - 6th ANeT Seminar and Meeting (date and venue)

4. New members and structure of committee membership

5. Any other business

ANeT Newsletter No. 8. 30 April 2006

Agenda Item 1: Discussion on Proposal on Action Plan as tabled by Dr. John Fellowes

Draft of Proposal was distributed. During the discussion no amendments were proposed to the

draft Action Plan objectives. The main issue discussed was setting up of a common coding system for

ants of Asian region. Members agreed:

1. Due to the slow process of taxonomic review and the need for internationally-standardised

nomenclature, we need a coding system to cover both described and undescribed species from

Asia, as held in the ANeT collections.

2. Geographical range of collection to use the common coding system for ANeT ant is the

Oriental region plus Sulawesi and Iran.

3. Code agreed is exemplified as: Tetramorium (subgenus) ANET 001 (the ANET spelling is all

capital letters and the number of 0s depend on size of genus. Subgenus is optional. Genus and

subgenus in italics.)

4. All ants will be coded. This means that some may have even had confirmed species name.

Example: Tetramorium ANET 001 is Tetramorium bicarinatum.

5. For the next two years (November 2005 to November 2007) Dr. Rudy Kohout is given the

honour to start the system going using Polyrhachis and Echinopla. The system will be

reviewed in the 6th ANeT Seminar and Meeting. If it is successful and practical, and

acceptable to many members, then allocation of other members who are keen to be manager of

particular genera will follow. This will then become the unified system of species coding for

ants for ANeT. The list is to be databased on Excel.

6. The draft objectives of the Action Plan will be given out to members for comment, which

should be submitted to Dr. John Fellowes by middle of December 2005. Members will also be

invited to participate in the Plan.

7. John will then coordinate the Plan compilation, ready for discussion of recommended actions

at ANeT 2007.

Agenda Item 2: Proceedings/Journal

1. The President proposed that a journal be initiated because ANeT is now 7 years old and has a

good number of members doing high quality research on ants. The journal would give ANeT

an identity and provide opportunity for younger members to start writing good scientific

papers on ants. However, it is not a must that all members must submit to the journal.

2. The names of the journal proposed were ASIAN MYRMECOLOGY and ASIAN ANTS, the

first being favoured by the committee. The President will seek an ISSN number and

registration that will also determine the name.

3. A committee for the journal was proposed and they are:

i. Advisor : Prof. Maryati Mohamed

ii. Editors : Dr. Martin Pfeiffer and Dr. John Fellowes

iii. Editorial board (to be confirmed after further discussion)

4. Rudy volunteered to design the cover and the size agreed is B5. Format is as in ANeT first

Proceedings.

5. A managing editor (Ms. Petherine Jimbau) will be stationed at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

ANeT Newsletter No. 8. 30 APRIL 2006

Submitted manuscripts will be sent to the Editors to handle the review process. Final accepted

manuscripts will be sent to either Ms. Petherine / Mr. Bakhtiar or both for journal publication.

6. Where appropriate, members are encouraged to submit their presentations made during the 5th

ANeT Seminar and Meeting to the journal by August 2006. A six-month editing period is

expected, followed by 2 months of finalization and printing. The first journal is expected to be

out by mid-2007.

7. Besides presentations made at the 5th Seminar and Meeting, members may send other papers

about ants from their research [from time to time]. The scope will include Taxonomy and

Biogeography, Ecology and Conservation and Applied Myrmecology.

8. The President will find funding to cover the cost of managing and printing the journal and it

will be published every two years.

[9. Post-meeting note: Martin Pfeiffer agreed to be co-editor of the journal; John and Martin

were to draft guidelines for submission, and a proposed editorial board, for approval by the

ANeT Committee in May 2006.]

Agenda Item 3: Next Meeting - 6th ANeT Seminar and Meeting (Date and Venue)

After some discussions, members agreed that the 6th ANeT Seminar and Meeting will be in

India at the end of October 2007.

Agenda Item 4: New Members and Structure of Committee Membership

1. By December 2004, there were 54 members. By 30th November 2005 the total number of

members was 61. The updated list of names of members will be provided by the secretariat.

The breakdown of representation is as below:

2. The President reported that there is about RM 683.35 from previous fee collection, and

Bakhtiar reported about RMl,000 fee had been collected in this meeting.

3. Members decided to set up a more structured Committee to reflect the size of ANeT and

ensure effective division of responsibilities. A clear and simple constitution will be proposed

and discussed for members' approval at ANeT 2007. In the meantime the committee is as

follows, with the names of members volunteering to assist in the respective portfolios:

President: Prof. Datin Dr. Maryati Mohamed

Vice President / Coordinating Secretariat for 6th ANeT Seminar & Meeting 2007:

Dr. Himender Bharti


Secretaries: Mr. Bakhtiar Effendi Yahya (Kagoshima University, Japan) &

Ms. Petherine Jimbau (UMS, Malaysia)

Treasurer: Ms. Petherine Jimbau

Committee Members:

Action Plan: Dr. John Fellowes

Newsletter: Prof. Seiki Yamane, Dr. Decha Wiwatwitaya & Dr. Katsuyuki Eguchi

Journal: Dr. John Fellowes & Dr. Martin Pfeiffer

Other members: Dr. Bui Tuan Viet (Vietnam); Dr. Sriyani Dias (Sri Lanka); Dr.

Yoshiaki Hashimoto (Japan); Dr. Rudy Kohout (Australia); Prof. Kazuo Ogata

(Japan); Mr. Suputa (Indonesia).

4. There was a suggestion that other ANeT members may be nominated for Committee

Membership, when there is a proposal by any member of ANeT and endorsed by Committee

Members, during the next meeting. This suggestion will be incorporated in the draft

constitution.

Agenda Item 5: Any Other Business

These are some comments and suggestions by members:

J. R. Fellowes: I'm not sure about previous members such as Prof. Kim, Dr. Erwin etc. who

couldn't attend this workshop, or Dr. Rosli who could not attend the committee meeting.

Also Eguchi san, who has been a central player in ANeT throughout. I would suggest all

these are included in the provisional committee membership, but that by 2007 we need

greater clarity on committee membership, its responsibilities and its duration, so that all

members can understand the system.

Sk. Yamane: Also remind secretariat to inform members that articles for the newsletter must be

submitted by the second week of December 2005, so that it can be published by the end of

December 2005. [Post-meeting note: deadline postponed until the end of March?]

H. Bharti: Suggest that other members of ANeT should also start work on coding species of their

specific genus.

J. R. Fellowes: Suggest that more communication between committee members be made through

emails.


[Research Plan]

A First Step toward a Classification of Crematogaster in Asia

Shingo HOSOISHI

Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 812-8581 JAPAN

E-mail: [email protected]

Background

Many myrmecologists know that the genus Crematogaster is one of the most common ants

occurring worldwide and most speciose in the tropics. The ants are easy to recognize but difficult to

identify to species. The genus is conventionally divided into 16 subgenera, with approximately 400

described species in the world (Bolton, 1993). In Asia, about 200 species and subspecies have been

named, in 11 subgenera, but the taxonomy is far from complete. If we could have more reliable

groupings, we would be able to add further information to unnamed species (or those that are difficult

to identify), like "subgenus A" or "sp. cf. x group". Here I would like to give a brief outline of

Crematogaster in Asia as a first step to a comprehensive revision.

Subgenus-level classification was established in the slightly different systems of Wheeler (1922)

and Emery (1922). The former included 13 subgenera and the latter 11 subgenera: Rhachiocrema and

Neocrema were independent subgenera in Wheeler's but were included in Orthocrema in Emery's;

Eucrema was independent in Wheeler's but was included in Crematogaster in Emery's, while

conversely Acrocoelia was separated from Crematogaster in Emery's. Soulie (1965) treated the taxa in

Emery's system as genera and did not cover all the additional ones including Apterocrema,

Colobocrema, Eucrema and Mesocrema.

Table 1 compiles the number of species and subspecies, remarks and taxonomic references.

Asian endemic subgenera are Colobocrema, Paracrema, Physocrema, Rhachiocrema and

Xiphocrema. All of these include relatively small numbers of species. The subgenera Crematogaster

and Orthocrema are difficult taxa. There is no justification for the monophyly of most of the present

subgenera.

Tools for Identification

So far, there are no complete keys to species of Crematogaster in Asia. Several papers gave

partial keys that could be helpful to some extent. For example, Menozzi (1935) gave a key to species

of the vSubgenus 'Orthocrema' in SE Asia. His key included 21 species of the Indo-Malayan region,

some of which were transferred to the subgenus Mesocrema by Santschi (1928, 1937). Donisthorpe

(1941) listed 7 species of Physocrema and gave a key to them, but it seems out of date. Creighton

(1945) listed 4 Rhachiocrema species that could be identified with his key. In addition to those

references, some regional keys are also available in India (Bingham, 1903), China (Wu & Wang,

1995) and Japan (Onoyama, 1998).

Some websites offer helpful photos of certain species, e.g. the "Formicidae" section provided by

Lim & Pickerd under the "Discover Life" site of the University of Georgia et al.


Table 1. Asian subgenera of the genus Crematogaster.

Remarks Reference

Total 205

11-segmented antenna with 3-segmented club.

Promesonotal suture impressed. Mesonotum carinate in front. Also in Afrotropical, Palearctic & Neotropical regions.

11-segmented antenna with 2-segmented club. Head of the female truncate.

Monotypic subgenus, similar to Orthocrema.

Endemic to the Indo-Australian region.


Most speciose, most difficult to identify. Worldwide.

10-segmented antenna, small species. Arboreal.

Also in Afrotropical & Malagasy regions.


Postpetiole of female not enlarged. Similar to Orthocrema. Also in Afrotropical & Australian regions.


Petiole with parallel sides or nearly so. Worldwide.


Frontal carina short. Also in Afrotropical & Malagasy regions.

11-segmented antenna with 4-segmented club or

without a distinct club.

Endemic to the Oriental + Indo-Australian regions


Propodeum bulbous.

Endemic to the Oriental + Indo-Australian regions. Arboreal.


Propodeal spines well developed

Endemic to the Oriental + Indo-Australian regions.


Spines present on pronotum.

Endemic to the Indo-Australian region.

Menozzi, 1935

Menozzi, 1935

Donisthorpe, 1941

Creighton, 1945

: Identity unknown to me.

(http://www.discoverlife.org/nh/tx/Insecta/Hymenoptera/Formicidae/), "Antweb" by California

Academy of Science (http://www.antweb.org/), "Ants of Costa Rica" by Longino

(http://home.ripway.com/2004-9/170871/ants/genera/crematogaster/home.html), and "The Ants of Africa" by Taylor (http://www.antbase.org/ants/africa/cloglOf.htm).

Specimens Wanted!!

This is the present situation of Crematogaster taxonomy in Asia. To solve the taxonomic

impediment, we might start by distinguishing morphospecies regionally or revising conventional

subgeneric classification. I am tackling the taxonomy of the genus now but the specimens I have are

limited. Please show me those specimens of Crematogaster that might be put aside just labeled

^Crematogaster sp." in your collection. I will give you more information on the specimens and

hopefully identify them after careful study.


References

Bingham, C.T. 1903. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Hymenoptera 2. Ants

and Cuckoo-Wasps. 506 pp. London.

Bolton, B. 1993. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. 504 pp. Harvard University

Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Creighton, W.S. 1945. Observations on the subgenus Rhachiocrema with the description of a new

species from Borneo. Psyche, 52: 109-118.

Donisthorpe, H. 1941. Description of a new species of Crematogaster Lund, subgenus Physocrema

Forel, with a list of, and a key to, the known species of the subgenus. Entomologist, 74: 225-227.

Emery, C. 1922. Hymenoptera, Fam. Formicidae, subfam. Myrmicinae. In Wytsman, P. (ed.) Genera

Insectorum. Fasc. 174C: 207-397. Bruxelles.

Menozzi, C. 1935. Formiche indo-australiane del genere Crematogaster Lund raccolte da W.

Karawaiew. Konowia, 14: 103-116.

Onoyama, K. 1998. Taxonomic notes on the ant genus Crematogaster in Japan. Entomological

Science, 1: 227-232.

Santschi, F. 1928. Nouvelles fourmis de Chine et du Turkestan Russe. Bulletin et Annales de la

Societe Entomologique de Belgique, 68: 31-46.

Santschi, F. 1937. Contribution a l'etude des Crematogaster palearctiques. Memoires de la Societe

Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, 5: 295-317

Soulie, J. 1965. Contribution a la systematique des fourmis de la tribu des Crematogastrini. Annales

de I'Universite dAbidjan (Sciences), 1: 69-83.

Wheeler, W.M. 1922. The ants of the Belgian Congo. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural

History, 45: 1-1139.

Wu, J. and Wang, C. 1995. The Ants of China. 214 pp. China Forestry Publishing House, Beijing. (In

Chinese.)

[REGIONAL REPORT]

Overview of Ant Research in Sri Lanka: 2000 - 2004

R.K. Sriyani DIAS

Department of Zoology, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, SRI LANKA

Subfamilies, Genera and Species Recorded from Sri Lanka

Research on the diversity of ants in Sri Lanka was started in January, 2000 under a grant offered

by the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka (RG/ZSSL/99/02) and I was able to list the ants kept

at the National Museums, Colombo and the Department of Zoology, University of Kelaniya in ANeT

NEWSLETTER No. 4. During this investigation, worker ants were collected by baited method, litter

sieving and manually from four districts of Sri Lanka - Gampaha (including the premises of Kelaniya


University, other places outside this university, Maimbula forest and Pilikuththuwa forest), Colombo,

Galle and Ratnapura (including the forest associated with the city reservoir - "Pompakelle") -

Sooriyakanda forest in the range of Sinharaja) and identified to the furthest possible taxonomic level,

with the kind assistance of Prof. Seiki Yamane, Kagoshima University, Japan and Associate Prof. M.

B. Dubois, Myrmecological Museum of the Midwest, Illinois, U. S. A. Professor Seiki Yamane's

assistance for this research was invaluable and he visited Sri Lanka in April, 2001; he donated the

copies of very important books, research articles, equipment and other materials and advised me on

this work. Several other members of ANeT also supported me in various ways such as donating books

and research articles, discussion, via e-mail etc. This research was the basis for identifying the

subfamilies, genera and some species of ants in Sri Lanka (Table 1) and focused only on the

morphology of the workers. Most of the species are yet to be identified and identification to the

species level needs the assistance of ant taxonomists.

Although only nine subfamilies have been found during this work, subfamily Leptanillinae has

also been recorded from Sri Lanka (Bolton, 1995). I was awarded another Research Grant of NSF, Sri

Lanka in December, 2003 (RG/2003/ZOO/06) to continue my research on Sri Lankan ants and we

identified the members belonging to the tenth subfamily, Leptanillinae, during the present study.

Protanilla (identification was confirmed by Mr. Barry Bolton, Natural History Museum, London) and

Leptanilla were identified from the soil samples collected from "Pompakelle" and Gilimale forest,

respectively. Some ants formerly belonging to subfamily Ponerinae were recently placed in separate

subfamilies by Bolton (2003) and consequently, the number of subfamilies recorded from Sri Lanka

rose to twelve including Amblyoponinae (Amblyopone sp. has been identified recently) and

Ectatomminae (Gnamptogenys sp. is kept at the National Museums, Colombo).

Economically Important Ants

In addition to identification work, worker ants associated with pineapple fields in the wet zone

(Gampaha district) were also studied as these ants are believed to spread the pineapple mealybug.

Table 1. Subfamilies (9), genera (35) and species (33) of worker ants identified during the previous

investigation (NSF RG/ ZSSIV 99/ 02)

AENICTINAE

Aenictus

A. fergusoni

ANEURETINAE

Aneuretus

A. simoni

CERAPACHYINAE

Cerapachys

DOLICHODERINAE

Dolichoderus

Ochetellus

O. glaber

Tapinoma

T. melanocephalum

T. indicum

Technomyrmex

T. bicolor

T. elatior

T. albipes

DORYLINAE

Dorylus

D. orientalis

FORMICINAE

Acropyga

A. acutiventris

Anoplolepis

A. gracilipes

Camponotus

C. sericeus

C. variegatus

Lepisiota

L. capensis

Oecophylla

O. smaragdina

Paratrechina

P. longicornis

Polyrhachis

P. rastellata

Prenolepis

MYRMICINAE

Cataulacus

Crematogaster

C. dohrni

Lophomyrmex

L quadrispinosus

Meranoplus

M. bicolor

Monomorium

M. destructor

M. floricola

M. pharaonis

Myrmicaria

Pheidologeton

P. diversus

Pheidole

Solenopsis

S. geminata

Strumigenys

Tetramorium

PONERINAE

Anochetus

Diacamma

D. rugosum

D. ceylonense

Hypoponera

Leptogenys

L. ocellifera

Odontomachus

O. simillimus

Pachycondyla

P. luteipes

Platythyrea

P. parallela

PSEUDOMYRMECINAE

Tetraponera

T. rufonigra

T. allaborans


Laboratory experiments were conducted to find out if some species of ants contribute to the spread of

pineapple mealybug. Workers of Paratrechina longicornis and Solenopsis geminata were found to

carry the mealybug from one pineapple fruit to another during this experiment (Hewavitharane, 2003;

Sumanasinghe, 2001).

The Sri Lankan Relict Ant, Aneuretus simoni Emery

This species has been listed as a Critically Endangered and a threatened species in Sri Lanka by

IUCN (Social Insects Specialists Group, 1996) and I suggest that more research must be carried out to

find out if this is true!! As I mentioned during the presentation in Hanoi (Third ANeT Meeting), Prof.

Seiki Yamane identified this species in April, 2001 in a sample from "Pompakelle" (the forest

associated with the city reservoir) in Ratnapura. We observed this species in "Pompakelle" in April -

May, 2002, August, 2003 and January - February 2004. The relative abundance of the workers of this

species estimated by the laying of 30 quadrats in a selected region of "Pompakelle" in May, 2002 was

7 individuals m2 and this was the dominant species in that region (Perera, 2003). This ant species was

also observed in Gilimale forest, Ratnapura in February, 2004.

Current Research on Ants of Sri Lanka

1. A comparative study on the worker ant fauna in "Pompakelle", Gilimale forest and Sinharaja

forests:

This research is funded by the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka (NSF

RG/2003/ZOO/06) and a Ph. D. student (Miss. K. A. M. Perera) is working under the

supervision of Prof. Sk. Yamane, Dr. Sriyani Dias and Dr. Nirmalee Pallewatta, University of

Colombo, Sri Lanka.

2. Diversity of worker ants collected from two selected tree species in Gilimale forest:

An undergraduate student is working on this project.

Publications/Oral Presentations on Ants

Chaminda, K.M.G.R. and Dias, R.K.S. 2001. Taxonomic key for the identification of Sri Lankan ants:

Subfamilies. Third ANeT Seminar and Workshop held at the Institute of Ecology and Biological

Resources, Hanoi, Vietnam on 4th Nov. 2001.

Dias, R.K.S. and Chaminda, K.M.G.R. 2000. A preliminary taxonomic study of Sri Lankan ants.

Second ANeT workshop held at the Universiti of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia on 2nd-3ri

Nov. 2000.

Dias, R.K.S. 2002a. Current knowledge on ants of Sri Lanka. ANeT Newsletter, No. 4: 17-20.

Dias, R.K.S. 2002b. Ants of Sri Lanka with a Brief Description of Field and Laboratory Methods.

Sarvodaya Vishvalekha Press, Ratmalana. 44 pp.

Dias, R.K.S. 2003. Taxonomic study of the worker ants collected from Colombo and Galle districts in

Sri Lanka. Fourth ANeT workshop held at Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand on 26lh Nov.

2003.

Dias, R.K.S. and Chaminda, K.M.G.R. 2001. Systematic^ of some worker ants (Hymenoptera,

Formicidae) collected from several regions of Sri Lanka. Third ANeT Seminar and Workshop

held at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi, Vietnam on 4th Nov. 2001.

Dias, R.K.S., Chaminda, K.M.G.R. and Yamane, Sk. 2001. Systematics of the worker ants collected

from the premises of Kelaniya University (Abstract). Proceedings of the 57 th Annual Sessions

of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, D 175.

10 ANeT Newsletter No. 8. 30 APRIL 2006

Perera, K.A.M. and Dias, R.K.S. 2003. The relative abundance of Aneuretus simoni Emery in the

forest ("Pompakelle") associated with the water pumping station in Ratnapura. Proceedings of

the 59 th Annual Sessions of SLAAS, p. 165.

Sumanasinghe, H.P.W. and Dias, R.K.S. 2002. Diversity of worker ants collected from four

Dysmicoccus btvvipes Cockerell infested and uninfested pineapple fields in Attanagalla and a

preliminary study on the association between Paratrechina longicornis Latreille and

Dysmicoccus brevipes (Abstract). Proceedings of the 58 th Annual Sessions of SLAAS, p. 168.

Dias, R. K. S. and Perera, K. A. M. 2004. Estimation of the relative abundance of Aneuretus simoni

Emery in "Pompakelle" using four sampling methods (Abstract). In: Sri Lanka Association for

Advancement of Science Press.

Theses (Unpublished) Based on Ant Research Submitted as a Partial Requirement for B. Sc.

(Special) Degrees in Zoology at University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka:

Sumanasinghe, H.P.W., 2001. Diversity of worker ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) collected from

four pineapple fields and some biological aspects of Paratrechina longicornis Latreille, a

selected formicine ant found in the pineapple fields infested with Dysmicoccus brevipes.

Perera, K.A.M., 2003. The relative abundance and density of Aneuretus simoni Emery (Hymenoptera,

Formicidae) in a selected region in the forest associated with water pumping station in

Ratnapura.

Hewavitharane, H. M.P., 2003. Diversity and community composition of foraging worker ants (Order:

Hymenoptera) collected from pineapple plants infested with Dysmicoccus brevipes Cockerell

and a laboratory study on the association between Dysmicoccus brevipes and two common ant

species, Anoplolepis gracilipes and Solenopsis geminata.

Other References Cited

Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World, Cambridge, Mass. 504 pp.

Bolton, B. 2003. Synopsis and Classification of Formicidae. Memoirs of the American Entomological

Institute, 71: 370 pp.

Social Insects Specialist Group 1996. Aneuretus simoni In: IUCN 2003. 2003 IUCN Red List of

Threatened Species, <www.redlist.org>. Downloaded on 22 September 2004.

Newsletter No. 8. 30 APRIL 2006

[Research Article]

A Preliminary Survey on the Species Composition and Nesting Habits of Ants in the Bogdkhan Mountain Region, North Central Mongolia

Urykpan AIBEK1, Chonokhuu SONOMDAGVA2 & Seiki YAMANE3

'Department of Ecology, Faculty of Biology, National University of Mongolia, MONGOLIA


'Department of Geoecology-Land Management, Faculty of Earth Sciences,

National University of Mongolia E-mail:[email protected]

department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kagoshima University, JAPAN

E-mail:[email protected]

Introduction

The ants of the Bogdkhan mountain region, north central Mongolia, have been studied by

Dlussky (1965), Pisarski (1969a, b), Dlussky and Pisarski (1970), Pisarski and Krzysztofiak (1981).

They recorded 26 species belonging to six genera in two subfamilies. However, since the 1990s

several important taxonomic papers on the ants of the northern Palaearctic region have appeared (e.g.,

Seifert, 1992, 2000; Radchenko, 2004), with descriptions of new species and changes in name and

taxonomic status of a number of species. Thus care should be taken when citing some of the earlier

papers. Recently Pfeiffer et al (in press) has listed all the known species of ants from Mongolia, but

localities for each species are often not stated.

We collected ants from this mountain region in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Although the area covered

was rather restricted, our data are based on colony collection and thus provide information on nesting

habits of ants in this region. Since we did not examine the materials used in the studies by previous

authors, it was not easy to match the species names between our list and theirs. Here we present the

list of ants collected by us with information on nesting habits. A list of species recorded by previous

authors is prepared separately, and comments are made regarding some species.

Research Sites and Methods

Mongolia stretches across Central Asia and has an average elevation of 1,580 m above sea level,

almost 80% being located at elevations of more than 1,000 m and with an extreme continental climate.

The Bogdkhan mountains (47°45'N, 107°ll'E) are located at the south-western boundary of the

Khentii Mountain range in north central Mongolia, and characterized by cold winters, cool summers

and sharp continental climatic features. In this mountain system four vegetational subzones, i.e.,

alpine taiga, alpine forest, forest steppe and arid steppe, are recognised. The annual mean air

temperature ranges from -2.5 to -3.1°C, with the coldest mean air temperature in January being -19°C

to -24°C, and the highest mean temperature in July being +14.5°C to +16.8°C.

We conducted myrmecological surveys mainly in late June to early July 2003 and April and

early August 2004. Ants were collected from several gullies of the mountain. Colonies were found by

searching the ground surface, and nest site types were recorded.

12 ANeT Newsletter No. 8. 30 April 2006

Results

Species collected

Seventeen species belonging to six genera were collected (Table 1). All the species belong to

either of Formicinae or Myrmicinae. The most speciose genus was Formica, of which eight species in

three subgenera were found. In one case F. (Serviformica) Candida was collected together with F.

(Raptiformica) sanguinea from one and the same nest, and in another case F. {Formica) lugubris was

collected together with F {Serviformica) lemani from under the same stone. Among ten colonies of

Myrmica collected only one was of M. pisarskii, all the others being of M. angulinodis.

Nesting Sites

Ants were collected from a total of 43 colonies. Three types of nesting were recognised:

1) Nests with a mound on the ground level (mounds were made mainly of dead larch leaves, with

pebbles, pieces of dead twigs etc.), but nest chambers often extended underground. Species of

the subgenus Formica constructed larger and taller mounds, while in those of the subgenus

Coptoformica mounds were smaller, with a flat upper surface.

Table 1. List of ant species collected in 2003 and 2004.

Species Habitat Nest site/type*

FORMICINAE

Camponotus japonicus

Camponotus sachalinensis

Camponotus saxatilis

Formica (Coptoformica) exsecta

Formica (Coptoformica) pisarskii

Formica (Formica) aquilonia

Formica (Formica) lugubris

Formica (Raptiformica) sanguinea

Formica (Serviformica) Candida

Formica (Serviformica) kozlovi

Formica (Serviformica) lemani

Lasius gebaueri

MYRMICINAE

Leptothorax acervorum

Leptothorax muscorum

Myrmica angulinodis

Myrmica pisarskii

Temnothorax nassonovi

Larix forest

Grassland; Larix forest;

NPO plantation site

NPO plantation site

Sparse Betula forest

Very sparse grassland

Sparse Larix forest, etc.

Forest steppe, Larix forest

Relatively dark forest

Forest

Rotting wood (1); dead stump (1)

Under stone (1)

Mound (2); rotting wood (1)

Mound (3)

Mound (1);

under stone/in soil (1) (with F. lemani)

Under stone (1) (with F. Candida)

Under stone (2); unknown (1)

Under stone (2); under log (1);

rotting wood (3)

Under stone (1); rotting wood (1)

Under stone (1)

Rotting wood (3)

Under stone (6)

Larix-Betula mixed forest, etc. Under stone (2); rotting wood (6);

rotting stump (1)

Under stone (1)

! The number of nests sampled is given in parentheses. Nests under stones usually extended into soil.

ANeT Newsletter No. 8. 30 APRIL 2006 13

2) Nests under stones (or sometimes under logs) but often with a larger portion in the soil. This

type was seen in Camponotus saxatilis, Formica (Rap tifor mica) sanguinea, species of the

subgenus Serviformica, Lasius gebaueri, Leptothorax muscorum, Myrmica angulinodis (one

of nine nests sampled) and Myrmica pisarskii. Formica (Formica) lugubris, probably a mound

maker, was once found from under a stone together with F. (Serviformica) lemani.

3) Nests, in dead/rotting twigs, logs or stumps. The substrates were largely twigs/logs of white

birch and larch in forest-steppe. This type was seen in Leptothorax acervorum (in rather dense

forests), Myrmica anguinodis, Camponotus sachalinensis, Formica (Coptofor mica) exsecta

(only on one occasion), F. (Serviformica) kozlovi (three of six colonies sampled), and F. (S.)

lemani (one of two colonies sampled).

Only one nest type was observed for each species, with some exceptions mentioned above. In the

genus Formica each subgenus had a characteristic nesting type, though Serviformica species were

rather flexible in nesting behaviour.

FORMICINAE

Camponotus japonicus aterrimus

Camponotus herculeanus sachalinensis

Formica (Coptoformica) pisarskii

Formica (Formica) lugubris

Formica (Raptiformica) sanguinea

Formica (Serviformica) longiceps

Formica {Serviformica) picea

Formica (Serviformica) kozlovi

Formica (Formica) truncorum

Formica (Formica)poly>ctena

Formica (Serviformica) lemani

Formica brunneonitida

Formica uralensis

Lasius alienus

Lasius distinguendus

Pisarski, 1969a,b;

Dlussky & Pisarski, 1970;

Pisarski & Krzysztofiak, 1981

Pisarski, 1969b;



Pisarski, 1969b

Pisarski, 1969a

Dlussky, 1965; Pisarski, 1969a

Pisarski, 1969b

(environs d'Oulan-Bator)

Pisarski, 1969a;



Pisarski, 1969a,b;


Pisarski, 1969a

Pisarski, 1969a

Pisarski, 1969a;



Pisarski, 1969b


Pisarski, 1969a

Pisarski, 1969a,b;



Pisarski, 1969a

Currently the subspecific name

aterrimus is omitted

Currently sachalinensis is raised

to species rank

Pfeiffer et al (in press) omitted

this species from the Mongolian

fauna

F. picea was replaced by

F. Candida (Bolton, 1995)

Pfeiffer et al (in press) omitted

this species from the Mongolian

fauna

Very probably L. przewalskii

(see Pfeiffer et al., in press)

MYRMICINAE

Harpagoxenus zaisanicus

Leptothorax acervorum nigrescens

Leptothorax muscorum

Leptothorax kaszabi

Myrmica angulinodis

Myrmica bergi divergens

Myrmica arnoldii

Myrmica sulcinodis

Myrmica forcipata

Myrmica kasczenkoi

Myrmica saposhnikovi saposhnikovi

Pisarski, 1963, 1969a

Pisarski, 1969a,b;


Pisarski, 1969a,b;



Pisarski and Krzysztofiak, 1981

Pisarski, 1969a,b;



Pisarski, 1969b;

Dlussky & Pisarski, 1970

Pisarski, 1969b


Pisarski, 1969a

Pisarski, 1969a,b

Pisarski, 1969a,b

Pisarski, 1969b

Originally described from Zaisan,

Bogdkhan (Pisarski, 1963)

Currently the subspecific name

nigrescensis omitted

Transferred to Temnothorax

(Bolton, 1995; Radchenko, 2004)

M. divergens is currently treated

as a distinct species

This is probably M. pisarski

Discussion

Our list contains only 17 species, while previous authors recorded 26 species (Table 2; but for

three of them the locality was described as "environs d'Oulan-Bator"). The largest difference lies in

the number of Myrmica species, namely two versus eight. A social parasite of Leptothorax species,

Harpagoxenus zaisanicus, originally described from the Bogdkhan mountains, was not collected this

time. Among the "species" which were not collected by us, Myrmica saposhnikovi most probabJy

corresponds to our M. pisarskii, and Lasius alienus possibly to L. gebaueri, the latter having been

described recently from Tibet by Seifert (1992) and recorded by Pfeiffer et al (in press) for the first

time from Mongolia. Seifert (1992) did not examine any specimen of L. alienus from Mongolia. The

record of Formica (Coptoformica) longiceps from north central Mongolia (Pisarski, 1969) is

somewhat doubtful and Pfeiffer et al. (in press) omitted this species from the Mongolian fauna.

Identification of some other species such as Formica {Formica) truncorum, F. (F.) polyctena and

Lasius distinguenda also need reconfirmation. Species recorded here for the first time are Camponotus

saxatilis, Formica {Coptoformica) exsecta, Lasius gebaueri (but see above), Myrmica pisarskii (but

see above), and Temnothorax nassonovi.

Nesting types of ants are systematically reported for Bogdkhan ants for the first time. As

mentioned above each species generally has a particular type of nesting habit. But although in

Formica each subgenus tends to construct their nests in a particular way, some species can have

different types of nests. Nest sharing or social parasitism further complicates the situation. When two

species with different nesting types live together, a species may be found from an unusual site, e,.g,., a

mound making species from under a stone. This time we did not examine dead parts of living trees,

which are sometimes used by Camponotus species in other places in northern Mongolia. Underground

ANeT Newsletter No. 8, 30 APRIL 2006 j__

nesters that do not construct a mound (or species not utilizing stones) were also not detected during

our surveys. We expect to find more types of nesting sites as more thorough surveys are made in the

future.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Alexander Radchenko of Ukraine Academy of Sciences and Dr.

Bernhard Seifert of the National Science Museum, Gorlitz for their help in identifying specimens. Dr.

Sadao Kawaguchi of Kyushu University provided us with valuable material. Dr. John Fellowes kindly

revised an earlier draft of manuscript.

References

Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. 504 pp. Harvard University

Press, Cambridge.

Dlussky, G.M. 1964. Murav'I podroda Coptoformica roda Formica SSSR. Zoologichesky Zhurnal, 43:

1026-1040.

Dlussky, G.M. 1965. Ants of the genus Formica L. of Mongolia and Northeast Tibet (Hymenoptera,

Formicidae). Annales Zoologici (Warszawa), 23: 15-37.

Dlussky, G.M. und Pisarski, B. 1970. Formicidae aus der Mongolei. Ergebnisse der mongolisch-

deutschen biologischen Expeditionen seit 1962, Nr. 46. Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen

Museum in Berlin, 46: 85-90.

Pisarski, B. 1969a. Myrmicidae und Formicidae. Ergebnisse der zoologischen Forschungen von Dr. Z.

Kaszab in der Mongolei (Hymenoptera). Faunistische Abhandlungen, 2: 295-316.

Pisarski, B. 1969b. Fourmis (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de la Mongolie. Fragmenta Faunistica, 10:

221-236.

Pisarski, B. & Krzysztofiak, L. 1981. Myrmicidae und Formicidae (Hymenoptera) aus der Mongolei,

II. Folia Entomologica Hungariea, 34: 155-166.

Pfeiffer, M., Radchenko, A., Seifert, B., Yamane, Sk. & Aibek, U. in press. A preliminary checklist of

the ants of Mongolia (Hymenoptera/Formicidae).

Radchenko, A. 2004. A review of the ant genera Leptothorax Mayr and Temnothorax Mayr

(Hymenoptera, Formicidae) of the eastern Palaearctic. Acta Zoologica Academiae Scientianim

Hungaricae, 50: 109-137.

Seifert, B. 1992. A taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic members of the ant subgenus Lasius s.str.

(Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Abhandlung und Berichte des Naturkundemuseums Gorlits, 66 (5): 1-67.

Seifert, B. 2000. A taxonomic revision of the ant subgenus Coptoformica Mueller, 1923

(Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zoosystema, 22: 517-568.


[Research Article]

Note on the Bait Trapping Method

Yuzuru KUBOKI1, Kazuo OGATA1 & Eiiti KASUYA2

institute of Tropical Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 812-8581 JAPAN


"Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, 812-8581 JAPAN

Introduction

In a survey for an inventory, the collecting method is required to cover as many species as

possible. To make a rapid investigation there are several methods. Bait trapping with various

substances is a kind of passive attractant methods to sample ants, which does not require special skill

on the part of investigators. Because baiting is a simple, inexpensive, and rapid way of sampling, it is

frequently used to estimate the composition and richness of the active ground-foraging ant fauna,

although the community composition collected by baiting was noted to be biased by various factors

(Bestelmeyer et al., 2000). Conventionally various nutrients have been used as bait substances and a

comparative study in the tropics was reported by Delabie et al. (2000). The present paper reports the

results of bait trappings in forest and grassland habitats of the temperate area using different bait

substances.

Material and Methods

Study Sites

The experiment was carried out in two kinds of habitats: forest (Kashii-gu Shrine, Fukuoka City)

and grassland (Hakozaki Campus, Kyushu University, Fukuoka City). The site in Kashii-gu Shrine is

an evergreen broadleaved forest with closed canopy (ca. 3 ha) preserved well over long term. The site

in Hakozaki Campus of Kyushu University is a grassy area (ca. 1 ha) predominantly covered by Poa

pratensis.

Kinds of Bait Substances and Trap Setting

Three kinds of bait substances were prepared: butter as fat bait, sugar solution as carbohydrate

bait, and oil-free canned tuna as protein bait. Bait quantity was as follows: butter bait = 0.5 g; sugar

bait = sanitary cotton (4x4 cm) immersed with 30 % sugar solution; tuna bait = 2 g. Each bait was

put on a Petri dish (6 cm in diameter). In each habitat, a 145-m transect was set up randomly and

divided into three sections, each of which included 10 traps placed at intervals of 5 m on a 45-m

transect. To see the sampling effect in different bait substances, the trap settings were conducted three

times: the first day is for butter bait, the second day for sugar bait and the third day for tuna bait. The

traps were placed at exactly the same points and the same time of day. In the forest site, sampling was

conducted on 27 and 29 August and 10 September, 2002, from 9:00 am to 10:30 am; in the grassland

site, on 4, 5 and 9 September, 2002. All the sampling was executed under fine weather conditions.

One and half hours after placing the bait trap on the ground, the lid of the Petri dish was closed and


the ants were killed with ethyl acetate. After the materials were brought back to the laboratory, ant

species were identified and the number of individuals was counted.

Data Analysis

Species richness — In order to check whether species richness was different among bait

substances, Friedman's test was applied.

Composition of species — To compare the species compositions collected by different bait

substances, we used the Jaccard's coefficient of community.

Results and Discussion

Species Richness at the Baits

A total of 17 species of ants were collected in the present study: 11 species in forest and 12 in

grassland, with 7 species common to both (Table 1). Seemingly Table 1 shows that some species

preferred a particular bait substance. For example, Camponotus vitiosus, Crematogaster matsumurai,

Ochetellus glaber, and Tetramorium nipponense were collected only by tuna bait. But we cannot

conclude that tuna bait is the best choice for these ants, because the collected ants would be affected

not only by their preference, but also by the behavioral dominance of colonies or by chance in finding

the bait. In the case of Lasius japonicus, the species was collected only by tuna bait in the section 3

while only by sugar bait in the section 1 in the forest.

The number of ant species collected at a single bait trap was 1.73 on average with a rang of 0 to

4 species. The lower number of collected species at a single bait is caused by monopoly of dominant,

mass-recruiting species (e.g., Pheidole noda, Monomorium chinense, M. intrudens, Ochetellus glaber,

Crematogaster osakensis).

Aphaenogaster famelica

Camponotus japonicus

Camponotus vitiosus

Crematogaster matsumurai

Crematogaster osakensis

Formica hayashi

Formica japonica

Lasius japonicus

Monomorium chinense

Monomorium intrudens

Ochetellus glaber

Paratrechina flavipes

Paratrechina sakurae

Pheidole noda

Pristomyrmex punctatus

Tetramorium nipponense

BT

BST

S

BS

ST

BST

T

BS

BST

BST

BT

BST

BST

BST

ST

ST

ST

T

S

T

BST

BST

T

BST

ST

BST

BST

S

T

T

S

BST

T

BST

T

T

BST

T

T

S

BST

Abbreviations: B, Butter; S, Sugar; T, Tuna

18 ANeT Newsletter No. 8. 30 April 2006

In each section, the number of collected species varied from 2 to 7 and there was no significant

difference among the three bait substances in the number of species collected both in the forest and

grassland habitats (Table 2). The average number of species in a section through all kinds of bait

substances was 5.6 in the forest site and 4.6 in the grassland site. These figures would be a reference

for setting bait traps.

Table 2. Number of species in different bait substances.

(*: Friedman's test, n=3 in each habitat, Degree of freedom=2, P<0.05)

Composition of Species

Table 3 shows two kinds of similarity values of species composition expressed by the Jacquard's

coefficient, those between bait substances (left) and between sections (right) in forest and grassland.

The lowest similarity (0.29) was observed in sections 2-3 by butter bait of forest site. Butter-sugar

baits in the section 3, sections 1-3 by tuna bait in forest site were also showed low value (0.33).

Although we did not execute statistical test because of the lack of replicates, the present data

suggested two points:

(1) Species compositions collected by different kinds of bait substances were not constant even

in the same habitat.

(2) Similarity values between sections were not always consistent in different bait substances.

Table 3. Similarity of species composition (values are expressed by Jaccard's coefficient). A. Forest sites


Bestelmeyer et al. (2000) referred to Brandao and Silvestre's experiment where they compared

species composition collected by tuna or sardine with that by honey-water baits and found no

significant difference. We cannot conclude whether different bait substances affect the composition of

species by our experiment here but some practical matters should be noted: oily substances sometimes

pollute the trapped ants and tuna tends to be stolen by small mammals and birds. Further detailed

design of the experiment would be necessary in evaluating the choice of bait substance.

In the forest site of the present study, we have collected 32 species so far by various sampling

methods (Kuboki, in Hosoishi 2006), and the present study covered only a part of them even in

different bait substances. The ants collected by the bait traps were trophic generalists, and specialized

predators (e.g., dacetines and ponerines) were not sampled in the present study. Delabie et al (2000)

suggested that the combination of different collecting methods, in particular the inclusion of Winkler

extraction, is necessary for complete inventory.

References

Bestelmeyer, B.T., Agosti, D., Alonso, L.E., Brandao, C.R.F., Brown, W.L.Jr., Delabie, J.H.C.

&Silvestre, R. 2000. Field techniques for the study of ground dwelling ants. In Agosti, D., Majer,

J.D., Alonso, L.E. & Schultz, T.R. (eds.) Ants: Standard Methods for Measuring and Monitoring

Biodiversity, pp. 122-144. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington, D.C.

Delabie, J.H.C, Fisher, B.L., Majer, J.D. & Wright, I.W. 2000. Sampling effort and choice of

methods. In Agosti, D., Majer, J.D., Alonso, L.E. and Schultz, T.R. (eds.) Ants: Standard

Methods for Measuring and Monitoring Biodiversity, pp. 145-154. Smithsonian Institute Press,

Washington, D.C.

Hosoishi, S. 2006. Ant fauna. In: The flora and fauna of Noko Island, Fukuoka City. Pp. 99-107.

Kyushu University Bio-Researching Club.

Notice!

This is the final issue of ANeT Newsletter which is printed on paper. From No. 9 onward the

newsletter will be put on ANeT website. With this change editors also change to Dr. Katsuyuki

Eguchi and Dr. Yoshiaki Hashimoto. A general guideline is as follows:

1. The ANeT Newsletter will be issued on our website with irregular intervals when articles up to 4

pages in A4 size are submitted.

2. We will accept research news, event information, self introduction, short essays etc. Meeting

records are also inserted. In particular smaller items of news should be welcome. However, every

original paper including a short communication should be pun on the new journal (Asian

Myrmecology).

3. Manuscripts are accepted at any time. Please ask native English speakers to check English before

submission. This is not obligate but highly recommended.

4. Send manuscripts to K. Eguchi ([email protected]) as attached files (MS

Word) or texts.


We wish to thank Dr. Rosli Hashim and his students

for their arrangement of the 5th workshop.

We enjoyed it very much!

ANeT Newsletter No. 8, April 30th 2006, Kagoshima, Japan

Published by ANeT, DIWPA

(Editors: Seiki Yamane and Decha Wiwatwitaya. Desk-top editing: Katsuyuki Eguchi)

i i

30 april 2006 no. 8 anet newsletter2019. 12. 18. · (japan); mr. suputa (indonesia). 4. there was a...

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